Once upon a time, there lived six men who used to quarrel and disagree on everything. One day the village head noticed this and wanted to solve the problem. So the village head called these men and pointing to a big room said, “There is a sculpture in that room, but the room is dark so you all go inside the room and find out what it is? I will provide you only little amount of time.”
They all agreed and went inside the room. They had no idea what was there inside the room. They decided, “Even though we would not be able to see it, let us go and feel it anyway.” All of them went where the sculpture was. Everyone of them touched the sculpture. But actually it was an elephant statue.
“Hey, it is a pillar,” said the first man who touched his leg.
“Oh, no! it is like a rope,” said the second man who touched the tail.
“Oh, no! it is like a thick branch of a tree,” said the third man who touched the trunk of the elephant.
“It is like a big hand fan” said the fourth man who touched the ear of the elephant.
“It is like a huge wall,” said the fifth man who touched the belly of the elephant.
“It is like a solid pipe,” Said the sixth man who touched the tusk of the elephant.
They began to argue about the elephant and everyone of them insisted that he was right. It looked like they were getting agitated. Now the village head interfered and calmly explained to them, “All of you are right. The reason every one of you is telling it differently because each one of you touched the different part of the sculpture. Actually it is an elephant has all those features what you all said.” Then he put on the room light.
“Oh!” everyone said. There was no more fight. They felt what the mistake they were making and happy that they learned the lesson.
This story is variation of the old story ‘The blind men and the elephant’L5 and it demonstrates the ‘theory of Manifold Predictions’ and throws light on why we disagree?…, it requires time and effort to understand fully something…, especially it sequels to the software development which we can’t see…, and many more. I leave the interpretations to you.
Prathab 